NATURAL HISTORY. 
perfectly the form and appear- 
ance of little puppies; and I ob- 
served, that, like them, they must 
be born blind. 
ELAND ANTELOPE. 
( From the Same.) 
This is the largest species of 
antelope, and forms the next gra- 
dation to the ox tribe: its length 
is commonly from seven to eight 
feet, and its height four feet, or 
somewhat more. The hair is of 
alight grey colour, and very thin, 
so that the skin, which is some- 
what blackish, appears through. 
The whole form of the body and 
head is like that of the ox, only 
that it is more slender: its most 
striking distinction, however, is 
in the upright horns, which al- 
most form a perpendicular with 
the forehead and nose: in the 
old animals the points even bend 
in a slight degree forwards. This 
is the only antelope that has the 
perfect tail of an ox. The boun- 
dary of the colony is the part 
principally inhabited by the elands; 
there they are sometimes found in 
groups of twenty or thirty toge- 
ther, but more commonly of about 
eight or ten, of which seldom 
more than one or two are males. 
They feed upon the same plants 
which, in inhabited parts, serve 
as food for the sheep and cattle. 
The aromatic properties of these 
plants seem highly salutary to all 
sorts of graminivorous animals. 
Incutting up the entrails of suchas 
feed upon them, the odour of the 
plants in ‘the stomach absolutely 
perfumestheairaround. Itissome- 
what remarkable, however, that if 
493 
gathered dry, the same plants 
have scarcely any smell: their 
strength is only to be discovered 
by the taste. The eland runs very 
swiftly, nor could it be overtaken 
by a horse, if its powers of con- 
tinuing the race were equal to its 
swiftness; but it is soon varied, 
and the peasants assert, that it is 
easier for a man to run down this 
animal than any other, even to 
hunt him to death. They add, as 
a very remarkable circumstance, 
that when killed in this way, the 
fat about the outer case of the 
heart, which, in many, weighs as 
much as five or six pounds, is al- 
ways found in a liquefied state ; 
and they consider this melting 
of the fat as the cause of the ani- 
mal’s death. The flavour of the 
eland’s flesh is essentially the 
same as that of the ox; but it has 
a sort of accessary flavour, which 
becomes disagreeable if a man be 
constrained to feed upon the 
fresh-killed meat for many days | 
together: when smoked it loses 
this flavour entirely. 
THE OSTRICH. 
(From the Same.) 
The habits of the ostrich are so 
remarkable, and have been so 
imperfectly described by travel- 
lers in general, that I cannot for- 
bear bringing together here all the 
knowledge I acquired upon the 
subject both in this and -subse- 
quent journeys. I have noticed, 
on a former occasion, a large flock 
of ostriches which we met in the 
neighbourhood of Komberg. In 
that country the drought and 
heat sometimes compel these gl- 
